New Wildlife Film - Grey Seals
 

Hi All,

I've just posted my latest short film called 'The Grey Seals Of Donna Nook'.

Feel free to have a look - it's at:

http://www.petermcmurdie.co.uk/videogallery.htm


All the best
Pete

Hi Pete,

Another great piece of work, keep it up and keep posting them here.
I like the way your videos tell a story, unlike some of the almost photo like sceinic montages with an added piece of moody music that are often posted here.

regards

Mick

I enjoyd this film very much Peter.
Very well done and with a suitable mix between music and narrations.
Also the storyline was very good with a lot of information and nice shots following the story.
Hope you can sell it to a TV station :)
The muddy/sandy beach of Donna Nook is a little bit different from our rocky beaches here in Norway though. This year I was supposed to film the Harbour seal as they gave birth to new pups, but I missed it by a week or so :( but I will try again in 2008.

Wish you all the best.
Geir Inge

Informative and enjoyable Peter. A real study of grey seals on land. The soundtrack matched the video sequence logically and unobtrusively.

I would agree with Mick Jenner about the success of your storytelling. I would go further and say that it is a relief to be able to hear a tight script without some dubbing idiot drowning it under so-called waves of glorious musak ... the scourge of almost every educational documentary in recent years.

Hi All,

Thanks very much for your encouraging comments. I have tried to give the film a 'real' feel to it. It could quite easily have been 10 minutes of cuteness, but that wouldn't be a true reflection on these creatures lives, it's a cold, windy and barren place and I hope I have managed to capture some of that.

Hi Geir - Where I live the seals haul out in small rocky coves surrounded by steep cliffs, but are virtually impossible to get close enough to film, so I traveled a few hundred miles north to film this as footage was guaranteed.

Thanks again for taking the time to watch, it's much appreciated.

Best Regards
Pete

www.petermcmurdie.co.uk

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You certainly had better weather than when I went :)

I like the narrative and the mix of footage showing life and death, very moving and shows nature as it is. It is a wonder how the seals stay with all the bombing in the week, how you mixed in the raf base to the narrative was good, although i wanted to keep away from that side and just show the seals in my film.

i did enjoy it though, they've all left the beach now, over a thousand pups were born there this season just out of interest, so it's all good that we can document that wonderful experience.

Well done!

Regards,
Russ

Hi Russ,

Thanks for watching - hope you get the camera sorted.

Great news on the seals. More pups survive at Donna Nook than average - I believe the mortality rate is about 20% rather than 40% percent elsewhere.

Hats off to all the people that work so hard to protect them - the volunteers, the local wildlife trust and the RAF. Long may it continue.

Cheers
Pete

wmv? why not Quicktime
 

It's cross platform wmv isn't. Lot's of folks using Mac's these days. Quicktime runs in Both Windows and MAC OSX.

Peter, do to all the trees around my home I'm unable to have wireless internet, so I'm unable to watch your video or others on this forum. Your stills, however, look awesome. What camera are you using?

Leon Lorenz
www.wildlifevideos.ca

Hi Michael,

The reason I'm using wmv is that in my experience, byte for byte the wmv video format is better at getting the file size down - 40Mb for a 10 minute film - with acceptable quality is pretty good. Using Quicktime it's 80Mb (ish). It could be that the software I'm using just isn't very good at getting the mov files down to size.

One could turn your statement on it's head and ask - Why buy a computer that can't play one of the most popular video formats on the internet? and also Why upload content that 'most' internet users would have to download a third party program to watch?

There are arguments for and against file formats and computer platforms. I hope this answers your question.

Hi Lorenz,
Thanks for taking the time to have a look at my website and comment on the stills. I'm using the Sony HVR-V1 at the moment, and on the whole feel it's pretty versatile and have produced some nice footage with it. It's also very light which enables me to walk miles to remote places for filming without breaking my shoulder.

I enjoyed your website as well - some great wildlife shots in there, particularly the bears and the bighorn mountain sheep fight.

Cheers
Pete
www.petermcmurdie.co.uk

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